Tunable lasers are necessary components in optical communication systems. However, existing tunable lasers are generally based on expensive technologies such as external cavity lasers and/or multiple section lasers. For example, external cavity semiconductor lasers use a wide-band semiconductor gain medium and external wavelength-selective optics to confine the round-trip laser gain to a specific wavelength. Tuning of the wavelength-selective optics is performed by mechanical apparatus (e.g. angle tuning of a diffraction grating) or electro-mechanical mechanical apparatus (e.g. Fabry-Perot cavity mounted on a piezo-electric crystal), the cost of which is generally quite high. Multiple section lasers use narrow tuning range devices that are selected electrically, such as multiple-section DFB (distributed feedback) or DBR (distributed Bragg reflector) lasers, or separate lasers that are selected using MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) devices, each of which are, again, expensive.